How to Stop Increase in Telemarketing Calls During Government Shutdown

Have you noticed an increase in robocalls lately? You have the government shutdown to thank for that. With no one at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) monitoring the Do Not Call registry, telemarketers are having a field day.

Since the government can't help right now, here's a few other ways to stop those annoying, repeated phone calls.

The four major cell phone companies have options you can take advantage of.

*AT&T Call Protect - provides automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam warnings. You can also manually block unwanted calls.
*Verizon - temporarily block up to five numbers for 90 days for free. After that, you'll have to manually block the numbers again. Or get the Caller Name ID service for $2.99/month
*T-Mobile - Scam ID and Scam Block are 2 free services. Name ID costs $4 a month and provides caller information like the name, location and type of organization, and can block them as needed.
*Sprint - "Premium Caller ID" service protects you from robocalls and caller ID spoofers for $2.99 a month.

There's also several apps to help protect you from annoying robocalls.